


Hope

by gingayellow



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-22
Updated: 2016-06-22
Packaged: 2018-07-16 15:17:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7273339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gingayellow/pseuds/gingayellow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Keith had met Pidge before they rescued Shiro. He just didn't realize it until much later. [Shiro/Keith, but mostly Keith and Pidge talking about their families tbh]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hope

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers for up to episode 8. For hc_bingo, the prompt is "loss of home/shelter."

Title: Hope  
Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender  
Characters/Pairing: Shiro/Keith (but mostly gen)  
Rating: PG-13  
Disclaimer: Not mine, anything mentioned here by name isn't mine  
Warnings: I don't think there's anything to warn for, but if I missed something, please let me know and I will tag!  
Notes: Spoilers for up to episode 8. For hc_bingo, the prompt is "loss of home/shelter."

“Mister Kogane.” Admiral Johnson eyed him levelly from her desk. “You have been discharged from Galaxy Garrison. You have no right to be on campus anymore. You can either leave of your choice, or my guards can escort you.”

Keith tensed as said guards entered the room, but he wouldn’t back down. “I’m not leaving until I know what really happened to the men on Kerberos mission.”

“You read the report. It was a pilot error.”

“Bull.” He clenched his fists, fighting to keep his temper in check. “I read the report. I saw Shiro’s ‘error.’ That’s the type of mistake some lazy first year cadet makes. Not Shiro.”

“Training and doing are very different things, Mister Kogane. Perhaps Lieutenant Shirogane panicked.”

“Shiro?!” Shiro was the calmest person he’d ever met. “And this wasn’t his first mission, it—”

“It was not the first mission, but it was the most dangerous one he had undertaken.” Johnson sighed (as if **she** was despairing, as if **she** felt even a glimmer of the grief Keith felt), taking off her glasses so she could clean them. “I do understand that you and Shirogane were close, but you mustn’t let your sorrow override your good sense.” And now she was pretending to feel sorry for **him** , as she frowned gently at him. “Shirogane wouldn’t want you to lose yourself in your grief.”

“That’s what this keeps coming down to, isn’t it? Loss.” He wanted to yell, scream, and tear apart the entire blasted building until he knew what had really happened… but as Shiro would say if he were here, patience brought focus. “If someone attacked the men, like a lot of us suspect, people deserve to know.

He inhaled shakily. “And maybe—” Let it pass. Be patient. Keep focused. “Maybe whoever has them, they’re keeping them around to study.” He was willing to wager that curiosity was not trait exclusive to humanity. “Maybe we come up with a plan to save—”

“I see now that you’re unreasonable.” Johnson’s tone was clipped. “Guards, escort him off campus.”

Keith landed a good kick on the first one, who went down with a thud, but the second one was his martial arts instructor (Stacy Smith) in his third year. She knew him well enough to get him in a wrist hold, and keep it as she dragged Keith out the door, down the hallway. Johnson followed them.

Stacy threw him out so hard, that there was no way he could get back up in time.

“Mister Kogane.” Johnson’s voice was as formal as it had been in her office. “The next time you try to visit your old school, you will be arrested. Good luck finding Shirogane from a jail cell.”

The doors slammed shut.

He could feel it building up in him. Rage/grief/fury/ **anger** so raw and white-hot that he couldn’t even articulate how it was **unfair**. Shirogane had given everything to this horrible school, maybe even his life, and they were going to ignore that, ignore everyone who was lost on that mission—

A young girl was also tossed out of the school.

Unlike Keith, she got up right away. She was shaking, but that didn’t stop her from pounding at the door three times.

Then, suddenly, she backed away. “ ** _YOU ALL SUCK!!!_** ”

Keith was about to force himself up and go to her, congratulate her on her refusal to give up, to let her know that she wasn’t alone in hating Galaxy Garrison… but she ran off (with a speed that would have shamed some of the best sprinters at his old school) before he could do anything.

And now… it was like she’d had a cathartic experience for both of them. He was too tired to be angry now.

All he could do was stand up, dust himself off, and go home so he could figure out how he was going to save Shiro.

\--

The rest of the year was a blur of weird dreams (Shiro screaming for him to save him/lions roaring at him because who even knew why), researching local legends about a blue lion and always, always moving and searching. And after that, he found Shiro and then found himself in space, learning to fly a red lion to stop the monsters who’d hurt Shiro. So it wasn’t until one relatively calm morning as he was getting dressed that he realized that the girl had been Pidge.

Hm.

Well, nothing was stopping him from congratulating her now.

\--

“You’re the one who told everyone at Galaxy Garrison that they suck, aren’t you? Congrats.”

Pidge blinked, and then gave Keith a shrewd look. “I may have. How would you even know?”

He sat down next to his fellow Paladin. “I think we both tried to get answers on the same day.”

“Oh.” Pidge leaned back on the couch. “Well then, Keith, I have a confession to make. I dislike the organization that wrongly claimed that my father and brother are dead.” She was smiling, trying to make a joke. But there was just a hint of the same raw rage she’d let come to the surface roughly a year ago still in her tone.”

“I agree with you.”

She gave him a thoughtful look. “That’s right, you and Shiro…ugh!” She threw her hands in the air. “You, me, Shiro, my dad, and Matt. That’s five lives Garrison ruined when they decided to pretend that the Kerberos mission’s failure had just been a big mistake. Did they even care about the people they were hurting?!”

“No.”

“Don’t remind me,” Pidge grumbled.

Keith was still new to working within a team, at least one this close, but he had a feeling he needed to say something more. “You’ve been pretty dang brave, you know? Not everyone could face down Galaxy Garrison for answers.”

“I had to.” Pidge rubbed at her eyes quickly. “My mother…”

Shiro would know what to do. So would Princess Allura, and probably Coran. Lance and Hunk would at least have a good idea. But it was just them, and while there was a good chance he’d mess it up, he had to try.

“Um. Pidge. You don’t have to talk about your mother, but if you do, I’m here to listen.”

“Actually, I think I do,” Pidge admitted. She smiled sadly. “Mom heads the English department at UCLA. She was the one lit nerd in a family of STEM nerds.” Now Pidge laughed a little. “She used to joke about how she loved us, but didn’t understand any of us. But then…”

“If you want, you can stop talking.”

“No, it’s fine.” Pidge took a breath. “But then Dad and Matt vanished, and we were told they died.”

“Did you mom believe them?”

“No. She doesn’t know the first thing about physics, but she knew no one on the mission would make such an obvious mistake. So I suggested we try to find out answers on our own.”

From her tone, Keith guessed this might’ve been when mother and daughter did not agree. “She said no?”

“She said that Galaxy Garrison had already taken her husband and son, and she refused to let them take her youngest child.” Pidge sighed, leaning into the couch cushions. “So I let my temper get me and told as I far as I was concerned, the youngest child had already left a long time ago.”

“Oh, geez.” It wasn’t like him to react openly, but this was so horrible, the words came out on their own.

“Yeah.” She rubbed at her eyes again. “I lived with friends after that, and buried myself in creating my fake records so I could attend Galaxy Garrison.”

“You just wanted to save your father and brother.”

“And I left my mom to be alone in the process.” She glanced at Keith, briefly. “I was so mad at her when she told me to stop looking, but now?”

“Now?”

“I just hope she’s okay.” Her voice was very small.

In this case, Keith did know what to day. “She will be. Because once we beat the Galra and go home, you can talk to her again—and your father and your brother.”

Pidge’s smile was wavery, but real. “Thanks, Keith. And I’m closer than I’ve ever been before. Ever since you found Shiro—”

Now Keith remembered something he’d said to Pidge, not too long ago, and geez, there was a difference between being objective and terrible, and he had crossed it.

“Keith?” Pidge poke his arm. “You okay?”

“Pidge, I’m sorry.”

“Hunh?”

“Remember when I yelled at you for only caring about your own family?”

“Yeah, you weren’t my favorite person in that moment.” She grinned at him. “But you were right—”

“No, I was being a hypocrite. I was so mad at you wanting your family back, but when Shiro was gone, I…” He thought he was past this part of it, at least, but it still hurt to say it out loud. “I would have done almost anything to get him back. Because he’s… I love him, more than anything. And I was so glad he’s back I forgot how much it hurt when he was gone.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I understand if you wanna yell at me.”

Pidge stared at him for a long time, but then nudged his shoulder. “Hey. You care for him. I can’t get mad about that.”

“Wow. You’re way more mature than I am.”

“Yeah, I know.” Pidge hopped to her feet. “But honestly? I’m glad you two are together.”

Keith cleared his throat.

“No, I am! You’re both clearly in love with each other. And you know what?”

Keith followed her. “What?”

“My dad and Matt went through the same training Shiro did, who survived.”

“Which means,” Keith finished, smiling, “they’re still alive.”

\--

“Oh, good morning.” Shiro waved to his fellow Paladins. “You two are up early… and unusually cheerful for this early. Especially you, Keith.” He did his best to laugh. “Anything I can do?”

Keith shook his head, smiling. “No, we’re just… really glad you’re here.”

Pidge also smiled. “You’re our hope.” Then they left together.

“I have got to find out what Coran put in the goo this week,” Shiro said to himself, “Because that’s the only explanation.”


End file.
